The present invention relates to a method an apparatus for picking up papers and more particularly to a method and an apparatus for picking up papers stacked in an upright position one by one.
An apparatus for the above application is usually arranged at a stage preceding an automatic paper sorting machine. The apparatus picks up papers stacked in an upright position one by one while feeding them to the sorting machine, as taught in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 8-259016 by way of example. The apparatus taught in this document includes a tray for temporarily stacking mails or similar papers, a belt for conveying the papers one by one while sucking them, and a separator roller for separating one paper to be conveyed from the other papers.
However, the problem with the above conventional apparatus is that a shearing force acts on the papers due to the sucking force of the belt and the frictional force of the separator roller. The shearing force is apt to damage, e.g., letters and magazines of delicate quality.
Technologies relating to the present invention are also disclosed in, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication Nos. 59-223633 and 2-231329 and Japanese Patent Publication No. 7-5192.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method and an apparatus capable of picking up papers one by one without any shearing force acting on the papers which may be letters or magazines of delicate quality.
In accordance with the present invention, a method of picking up a plurality of papers stacked in an upright position one by one includes the step of causing a pick-up mechanism to angularly move for sucking outermost one of the papers and picking it up.
Also, in accordance with the present invention, an apparatus for picking up a plurality of papers stacked in an upright position one by one includes a tray for stacking the papers, and a pick-up mechanism angularly movable for sucking outermost one of the papers and picking it